Here’s How Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 Sets Up An Epic Finale
That’s all we get until Christmas.
Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 1 gives the classic schemes of earlier seasons a much bigger scope. When we finally catch up with the Hawkins gang, they’re living under military control while still trying to find Vecna in the Upside Down. But as we see in the first few episodes, that doesn’t exactly go according to plan.
Where do these four episodes leave our heroes? It’s all spelled out in Season 5, Episode 4, “Sorcerer,” which sets up the final four episodes of the entire series with some huge moments that completely change the show’s dynamic.
Warning! Spoilers ahead.
Most of Season 5 Volume 1 has been split into two parts: one in the Upside Down, and one in the Rightside Up. In the former, Eleven and Hopper try to track down Vecna by interrogating a soldier, which leads them into the military base Dr. Kay runs in the Upside Down. Eleven knows there’s a big secret hiding behind an even bigger door, and after fighting through her “kryptonite” — a specific tone that disables her powers — she manages to find it. That room doesn’t hold Vecna, but Kali, aka Eight, Eleven’s “sister,” who she ran away to see in Season 2.
Kali returns after disappearing in Season 2.
Meanwhile, in the Rightside Up, everyone is trying to keep Vecna away from his next target after he successfully “vanishes” Holly Wheeler and severely injures her parents. Through Will’s psychic connection to Vecna, he knows the next target is Derek Turnbow, the mean kid in Holly’s class. They stage a trap, leading Vecna’s Demogorgon to the house and tagging it with a GPS tracker, allowing Dustin, Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan to follow it into the Upside Down.
The military responds by quarantining all the children, where the crew hatches a new plan involving tunnels to evacuate Vecna’s potential victims. But everything goes haywire when the Demogorgons — and Vecna himself — wreak havoc on the military base. Vecna focuses on Will in particular, lifting him and beckoning him closer.
“Can you see them, William?” Vecna asks. “Can you see the children? Do you know why I chose them to reshape the world? It’s because they are weak. Weak in body and in mind. Easily broken, ashamed, controlled. The perfect vessels. And you, Will, you were the first. And you broke so easily.”
Vecna’s degradation of Will inspires him to tap into his true power.
As Vecna says this, we see his victims get sucked into the Upside Down. Will, devastated by Vecna’s words, suddenly finds himself consumed by power. As he recalls what Robin told him about accepting his true self, he remembers becoming friends with Mike, playing games with his friends, and building Castle Byers with his brother. As a result, he’s suddenly able to control every Demogorgon, even the one attacking Robin miles away, and he breaks all their bones as his mom and best friend look on.
It looks like Will isn’t weak anymore. In fact, it seems he’s just as strong as Eleven, something confirmed by the final shot of Will wiping his bloody nose, just as Eleven used to do after using her powers. Whatever’s in store for the next four episodes, Will won’t be the bowl-cutted wallflower he was before. His telekinetic powers and psychic tie to Vecna will prove invaluable in the final battle.
